"Fashion is nothing but what one says it is"​ (Barthes, 1961)

Dress code cracker is where we talk about personal expression through the lens of fashion and style. Far outside the confines of mainstream consumer fashion culture, we consider pop culture, politics, modern art and feminism in discussing style as a means of personal expression.We talk to one guest weekly about what they express when they get dressed and what informs their style. Using an audio format forces a visual medium to be translated verbally. The blog (dresscodecracker.com) then restores the visual element to the discussion.***************************************************************************Dress scholar Marcia Morgado has used semiotics to provide 3 principles needed to understand how dress carries meaning. They are:-Nothing has meaning in and of itself-Meaning results from relationships drawn between things and what those things represent-Cultures are structured on systems of rules.But semiotics doesn’t consciously inform how we present ourselves when we get dressed. What does?

Dress code cracker mission and values:-dress is a daily exercise in creative self-expression; whether the expression is conscious and cultivated or not;-politics inform personal style (esp politics of oppression/gender/race/feminisms/ableism etc);-to consider the impact of fast fashion and globalization; including how colonialism informs fashion trends;-fatshion and other forms of resistance to body policing and “body fascism”-how gender informs the way we dress; and how dress functions as a form of sexual expression;-how elements of style function as reciprocal communication between people;-to consider culture and subcultures in dress.Dress code cracker is body and sex positive. ​​